October was Menopause Awareness month. It was designed to raise awareness of menopause and help break the taboos that still surround the topic. But we are in November now, so why am I still talking about it?

Dedicated awareness months and days play an important role in raising awareness, but they are not enough. Instead of spotlighting menopause for one month, we should actively seek to destigmatise it and normalise the conversation around it all year round.

Because while menopausal women exist every day, for most of the year, menopause is in the margins. We have to make it mainstream. And in the advertising sector, we are in a prime position to do so.

That's why we worked with QVC and The Guardian on their 'Menopause Your Way campaign' to create a bespoke hub of stories and information that welcomes women of all ages to take part in the conversation.

Making all women visible

Menopause affects nearly every woman, some more severely than others. It can have a significant impact on everything from wellbeing in personal life to productivity and career progression at work, yet it’s something our society still struggles to have a normal conversation about.

There is often a lack of realistic narrative around the topic. It’s either talked about as every woman’s individual horror show or tackled with forced cheerfulness, often verging on toxic positivity. This approach shows that we still have a long way to go to become at ease with menopause and start talking about it in a way that women can relate to.

This should also be a wakeup call for brands and businesses to get behind anyone experiencing menopause. There are currently around 13 million menopausal or perimenopausal women in the UK. That is a huge audience – especially if you consider how poorly represented it is in the media.

Menopausal women are largely absent from mainstream media in advertising as well as storylines. It seems that we see more ads for erectile dysfunction than menopause relief even though it only affects 20% of men - a small minority compared to the 75% of women trying to navigate unexpected and distressing symptoms caused by menopause.

This leaves a massive gap, but it's the perfect opportunity for brands to take charge of the conversations around menopause to create an environment where everyone, regardless of their age or gender, can have an understanding of how to positively support women who are navigating their way through this stage in their lives.

Power of peer support

There is a lot that brands can do to help normalise the conversation and foster allyship, from championing midlife women in their ads to drawing from real menopause experiences to shape the narrative around their campaigns. But to resonate with menopausal women in widely different life stages, you have to approach it with authenticity, and that has to be rooted in real life experiences.

What QVC did in its recent 'Menopause Your Way' campaign is a prime example of bringing the menopause experience to life through the power of peer-to-peer storytelling. The retailer wanted to normalise the menopause narrative by making it more relatable, and the topic more approachable for everyone. Key to this was putting the spotlight on real women’s real experiences. As QVC’s media agency, we identified The Guardian as the partner with the ideal reach to ensure the campaign reached a wide range of women, and worked closely with the publisher to build a content strategy that could bring QVC’s message to life.

Columnist Stacey Duguid gave the campaign its voice, and a good deal of authenticity, too. Having gone through a divorce and now going through menopause, Stacey chronicled her midlife reinvention in several articles, sharing her experience and recommendations of the symptom-easing products that have worked for her.

Her columns made it clear that there is more to menopause than hot flushes and short tempers. She talked about taboo topics like sexual wellbeing as well as other areas that can have a big impact on women’s health, like sleep and nutrition. Negative perceptions are not easy to shift, but showcasing the menopause journey through a personal lens can help replace the fables with everyday realism.

The shoppable campaign connected a large audience with the Menopause Your Way hub and its range of resources, including a makeup tutorial from beauty influencer Ruby Hammar, which detailed her menopause beauty and self-care routine.The peer-generated stories were a hit with readers, exceeding benchmarks in terms of dwell time and engagement, which further underlines the opportunity for brands to step up and proactively change the conversation around women’s health through powerful content.

The timing of the partnership is also a good example of championing women outside the dedicated focus months. Running from September until November, it stretched the attention around Menopause Awareness month from both ends, highlighting the fact that one month is not enough to spotlight something that impacts a large part of the population every day.

Leading by example

QVC’s example shows that there is a great opportunity for brands to educate people on menopause – not just women, but the society around them. It’s also a chance for all of us, collectively, to do better for the women in and outside our industry. The advertising sector has a huge responsibility in how we portray menopausal women and present menopause in media, but also in how we treat women in the workplaces in our industry.

We need to actively educate the workforce to ensure we can provide women with work environments capable of supporting them. Upskilling is key, giving managers the confidence they need to talk about menopause, and creating ways to make work more manageable and enjoyable for colleagues navigating menopause.

By making education around menopause integral to company culture, businesses can be at the forefront of driving change around how it is discussed and acknowledged in the workplace from day one.

Progress around these efforts should also be celebrated. At EssenceMediacom, for example, we’ve gone through the rigorous process of gaining The Menopause Friendly accreditation by Henpicked to validate all the work we’ve done to learn how we can best support our people through menopause. Accreditation and initiatives like this are a great way to showcase a business’s commitment to its workforce, and send a strong signal to the rest of the industry of the determination to change perceptions around menopause.

Making it mainstream

For most women, menopause is not a joke, but neither is it a horror show. It’s a part of life, a rite of passage, and it should be present in our conversations when we talk about women’s health. Not just on a specific day or month, but consistently.

Brands can, and should, play a key role in shifting awareness and advocacy around menopause.

Through innovative campaigns, peer-led examples, and upskilling, we can build a new, realistic narrative around menopause, remove the secrecy and make mid-life more enjoyable and manageable for millions of women – for the benefit of everyone.